(Illustration by Gaich Muramatsu)
Hi Brain, >Can CODA handle "partial replication"? That is, can it handle having files >replicated across only some servers or does it always have to replicate >all files across all servers? The basic unit for replication in CODA is the volume. You assign a volume to a "server group". This server group may be any subset of CODA servers you have in operation. (Well, it can't be the empty subset :) So by this definition, CODA does handle "partial replication". >Let's say I have a system with 100 servers, each serving up files from a >large not-heavily-used archive to a local cluster of machines. I have >these servers in place already for other purposes; using CODA to make >the archive available is just one more benefit. CODA does not serve data from other file systems. Data in a CODA server must be stored in CODA via coda. NFS can export an existing file system. CODA can not do this. >I'd like to be able to say that the files in this archive must exist on >at least 3 (for example) servers at any one time, but can be held on more >if it is convenient. Such a setting would allow me to make use of the disk >space available across all servers (much like a raid) without each server >having to replicate everything. Frequently used files would obviously >get replicated across many servers (for speed) while infrequently used >files would just reside in the minimum number of places. Server groups are not dynamic. When you create a volume, it is assigned to a server group and that group of servers stores that volume and all files in the volume. The number of servers storing that volume does not change. I hope this helps. --Phil -- Phil Nelson NetBSD: http://www.netbsd.org e-mail: phil@cs.wwu.edu Coda: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu http://cs.wwu.edu/faculty/nelsonReceived on 2003-02-26 11:49:20